Serial Transnational Nomination “Silk Roads”

Results of the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust project ‘Support for documentation standards and procedures of the Silk Roads World Heritage serial and transnational nomination in Central Asia’
2011-2014
Serial Transnational Nomination “Silk Roads” is one of the most perspective and complex Project from the point of view of presentation of diverse Central Asian Heritage.

The purpose of this publication is the consolidation of the international cooperation in this sphere. It is recommended for managers of World Heritage sites and persons interested in the history of the Silk Road.

The Silk Roads represent routes of integration, exchange, and dialogue between different cultures and civilizations over more than two millennia. Situated at the convergence of the many Silk Roads, the Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) are home to numerous historic and cultural sites attesting to the Silk Roads' role as crossroads of civilizations. Nonetheless, Central Asia has been one of the most under-represented regions on the World Heritage List. The fi ve Republics equally remain under-developed socio-economically, albeit presenting enormous potential for culture-based development.

As the largest network of cultural routes in the history of mankind, the Silk Roads has significant potential for inscription on the World Heritage List, and promoting UNESCO’s goals of cultural diversity and dialogue. Over the past several years, the Silk Road World Heritage nomination has progressed well, driven by the participating countries of Central Asia and China.

As such, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre has worked towards a Silk Roads World Heritage serial and transnational nomination since 2003. Yet despite progress identifying and documenting such sites, the span of the Silk Roads, and the legislative coordination involved in a transnational nomination of its scale rendered the nominations especially difficult. Consultation meetings beginning in 2005 led to the “Concept Document for the Serial Nomination of the Silk Roads in Central Asia and China” (Dushanbe, 2007, revised in Xi’an, 2008), and an ICOMOS Thematic Study (Ashgabat, 2011), outlining a strategy for nominating the Silk Roads as various ‘heritage corridors’.